The sister of murdered backpacker Hannah
Witheridge has revealed Thai officials callously told her parents to
‘just make another one’ after their daughter was raped and killed while
on holiday.
In a scathing attack on Thailand and its
officials, Laura Witheridge also claimed many Thais ‘hate westerners and
they have little to no regard for human life’.
This was evidenced, she said, in some of
the shockingly callous comments made by judges and court officials to
her family during her sister’s killers’ trial last year.
The Mail of UK reports that in
December, Burmese migrant workers Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun were sentenced
to death for the killing of Ms Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24.
The British pair were found beaten to
death on a beach on Koh Tao in December 2014, while Ms Witheridge, from
Norfolk, had been raped.
In a Facebook post shared widely, Laura
Witheridge labelled Thai officials ‘corrupt’ and claimed Thailand was
not the beautiful and safe travel destination many believed it to be.
Among the questions court officials put to her family during the trial were: ‘Why are you here?’ and ‘why do you care?’
Shockingly, other individuals told the
grieving family: ‘She is dead already; why are you so bothered? Just go
home and make another one’ and ‘why are you making such a fuss, she will
be back in 30 days as something else, she may have better luck next
time.’
This, Laura claimed, was evidence of their ‘little regard for human life’.
She wrote: ‘Since Hannah was taken from us, I am continually asked whether I will warn the world about the dangers of Thailand.
‘Countless times, I have logged in to
Facebook and seen statuses made by people who know both Hannah and I,
who have gone out [to Thailand] anyway.
‘They think it wont happen to them. Well, guess what? Neither did we. No one is immune.
‘Many Thai’s hate Westerners and they have
little to no regard for human life. I don’t say this lightly, or
without reason. Let me share a few facts with you about this ‘beautiful’
place you speak of.
‘Many of the Thai people have no regard
for human life. My evidence for this statement: firstly, some quotes of
the things said to my bereaved, heart broken family by the judges and
court officials at the trial of the two Burmese migrants.’
She went on to reveal that she had
received death threats ‘from Thai people’ since her sister’s death and
they had ‘defaced photographs of me saying that the killers had only
done “half the job”.’
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